Giving a hint of what would be JMM’s main agenda, Soren raked up the old Adivasi demand of an autonomous council in the Jangalmahal region of West Bengal.
Former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren. (File Photo: IANS)
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday launched Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) campaign for the upcoming Legislative Assembly polls in West Bengal.
Addressing at a rally in Jhargram district, Soren said, “The JMM will fight for the interests of the Adivasi people of West Bengal.” The party will field candidates in 41 seats across the tribal-dominated Jangalmahal region in Bengal.
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Giving a hint of what would be the party’s main agenda, Soren raked up the old Adivasi demand of an autonomous council. He was also seen speaking about the ‘Greater Jharkhand Movement’ launched by his father Sibu Soren.
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The JMM aimed of a greater tribal state with Birbhum, Midnapur, Jhargram and Bankura regions of West Bengal alongside parts of Odisha and Chattisgarh.
“A Paschimanchal Autonomous Council should be formed under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution We are sure that the people here will actively fight to get what is due to them,” he told the meeting held at Jamda area of Jhargram.
The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration and control of Scheduled Areas as well as of Scheduled Tribes residing in any state other than certain states in the North Eastern region.
Following the demand for an autonomous council, the Left Front government has set up Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad in 2000 for the development of the 74 blocks in five districts in the western part of the state. A Department of Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs was also created in July, 2006.
The JMM has some influence in at least three constituencies in Jangal Mahal but it had never won any seat in the state.
Reacting to Soren’s demand, Mamata Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said, “I felt hurt. I had gone to Hemant Soren’s swearing-in as chief minister (in 2019) and had supported him a lot.”
Banerjee said that if the JMM working president can come to West Bengal and seek votes of the tribal people, she can also go to Jharkhand where a large number of Bengalis live and ask for their votes.
“We do everything for the people living in the state,” she said.
More than TMC, the Jharkhand chief minister had BJP as the aim of weapon. He attacked the saffron party, saying that it has done nothing the tribal population. The BJP is also selling off the assets of the country, he claimed.
The Hindutva camp, though, remained unfazed and refused to give any kind of importance to the Jharkhand’s governing party.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had managed to take hold TMC’s tribal vote bank. According to the results, it is now leading in 36 of the 41 assembly segments in Jangalmahal.
“The JMM will not be able to impact our tribal vote bank,” The Telegraph quoted BJP’s Jhargram president Sukhamoy Satpati.
With PTI inputs
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